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Denied Party Screening (DPS)

DPS Search Engine: Scoring, Name Matching, and Search Scenarios

ONESOURCE Denied Party Screening (DPS) is a solution from Thomson Reuters, designed for Global Trade customers worldwide. DPS allows you to screen both domestic and international trading partners - using names and/or addresses - against various sanctions and restricted party lists issued by regulatory agencies around the globe.
The search engine utilizes advanced technology and algorithms to evaluate and identify potential denied party hits. When hits surpass a specified threshold, they are flagged for further review, effectively balancing the reduction of false positives with the identification of relevant hits. Typically, most customers set this threshold at 80% to optimize accuracy and efficiency in the screening process.

Scoring

The search engine simplifies the concept of hit-scoring by providing the actual match percentage determined by the engine against a name/address match from a denied entity list. In the case where a hit is found against a region-based Sanction/Embargo list, the score does not produce a percentage, rather it specifically calls out hits that come from Sanctions (which are defined in the Sanctions/Embargos tab of DPS Settings).

Settings

The engine offers flexibility with the
Search Name Address Option (AND/OR)
 and includes a feature called
Search Name Weight
. This setting is relevant when using the
AND
 option, as it allows you to adjust how name and address components contribute to the final scoring of hits.
By default, an equal weighting of 50% for both name and address means that the hit scores are averaged equally. However, you can adjust this weighting to emphasize either the name or the address. This adjustment is done using a slider on the DPS settings page, which allows you to tailor the impact of matches based on your specific requirements.
Additionally, the engine assesses the entire set of address-related fields collectively. This approach removes the need for individual percentage settings at the address and city levels, simplifying the configuration process and ensuring comprehensive evaluation of address data.

Name Matching

The engine employs various techniques to match
SearchNames
 in foreign languages to English. However, it does not match any foreign language directly to another foreign language, except for matching between Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. For other languages, such as Russian, Arabic, Urdu, Thai, and others, matches are only made to English. This approach ensures effective name matching across different language systems while focusing on English as the primary point of comparison.
There are 13 ways the engine matches names.
  1. Phonetic similarity
  2. Transliteration spelling differences
  3. Nicknames
  4. Missing spaces or hyphens
  5. Titles and honorifics
  6. Truncated name components
  7. Missing name components
  8. Out-of-order name components
  9. Initials
  10. Names split inconsistently across database fields
  11. Same name in multiple languages
  12. Semantically similar names
  13. Semantically similar names across languages

Using the Search Engine

The field
Name Type
, indicates whether the data pertains to an
Organization
 or
Individual
. If uncertain, select
Organization
. For more accurate results, update this information for existing entities in the Company master data (Company Maintenance page).After testing and validating the search engine, it can be used for both the Ad-hoc
Quick Screening
 page and the
DPS Batch Screening
 process.

Search Scenarios

DPS results accuracy has rules to search for and score potential results to take advantage of relevance and completeness of address details provided to reduce false positive hits. The logic behind the search engine handles special search use cases such as:
  1. Searches where name (Alias) and:
    • Partial address is provided, and
      OR
       is selected¹
    • Partial address is provided, and
      AND
       is selected²
    • Partial address (including Country) is provided, and
      AND
       is selected³
  2. B. Searches where name and Partial address, including Address + Country + City or Postal Code or State is provided, and
    OR
     is selected⁴.
  3. Searches where name and:
    • Partial address, including Address + Country + City or Postal Code or State is provided, and
      AND
       is selected⁵
    • Partial address, including Address + State + Country + neither City nor Postal Code is provided, and
      AND
       is selected⁶
For searches included in
letter A
, hit score (per threshold) is the same as Alias score with secondary sort on Address score that is most relevant to the provided address. If country is provided, hit must have an address in that country or no address at all.
For searches included in
letter B
, hit score (per threshold) is the same as the greater between Alias score and Address score with secondary sort on Address score that is most relevant to the provided address.
For searches included in
letter C
, hit score (per threshold) is the same as weighted Alias score and Address score with secondary sort on Address score that is most relevant to the provided address. If country, address and state are provided, but neither city nor postal code is, hit must have an address in that country or no address at all.
Notes:
1. Gate 02_01
2. Gate 02_02
3. Gate 02_03
4. Gate 03
5. Gate 04_01
6. Gate 04_02
Category
Description
A
Entity hit score = Alias score. Secondary sort on Address score
B
Entity hit score = Max (Alias score, Address score). Secondary sort on Address score
C
Entity hit score = Weighted (Alias score, Address score). Secondary sort on Address score
For more details, refer to matrix and/or flowchart.

Matrix

For more information, refer to Search Scenarios.

Flowchart

This article applies to:

  • PRODUCT: ONESOURCE Global Trade
  • Sub-Product: Denied Party Screening